The 2022 Alaska Fire Season

The conventional wisdom on Alaska fire seasons is that large fire years come in different flavors, and 2022 added a new flavor. In typical years, most acreage typically burns during peak fire season between mid-June to late July and is primarily ignited by lightning. Exceptions include the extended fire seasons of 2004 and 2005, when the acreage tally continued to increase in August and even September. In contrast, the 2013 fire season featured a cold late spring with a lingering snowpack, followed by a hot (Fairbanks set a record of most days at or above 80˚F) dry summer with limited lighting, resulting in low acreage burned. The 2022 fire season is another exception: this season boasted the earliest date to reach 1 million acres burned (June 18). As of August 1, the tally is 3 million acres burned. But unusually, nearly half of that (1.3 million acres) burned in Southwest Alaska, where the 2022 fire season began early (late April) and led to a new seasonal record with 1.3 million acres (Figure 1). The 2015 season in Southwest Alaska ranks second with around 900,000 acres burned.

Interagency fire management in Alaska defines the official start of the fire season as April 1, as snow melting throughout the month of April makes dried grass available as the first fuels that can sustain combustion. Following a winter with a heavy snowpack in Interior Alaska (including the 2021 "Icemageddon"), a later-than-normal melt out, and La Niña conditions, there was the expectation of a mild fire season. The early start in Southwest Alaska, where snow melted out earlier than usual, resulted in increasing acreage burned from early June to mid-July. Statewide, the fire season has calmed down, but was not over as of early August 2022.

This presentation summarizes the climate anomalies that accompanied the 2022 fire season in Alaska, including last day of snow, convective precipitation, air temperatures, lightning strokes, synoptic patterns, and end-of-season rains. Personal experiences of Alaskans affected by the fires is also shared.